What ATO tax-debt leads cost, and why the maths is different
There is no list price for ATO tax-debt leads, and the per-lead figure is the least useful number anyway. The maths is different because of a $50,000 debt floor, a daily-compounding interest charge and a lender panel most brokers do not carry.
An ATO tax-debt lead is a commercial finance enquiry with a tax liability behind it instead of a property, and it is priced like one: by niche and volume, quoted on a call. It sits above a working-capital lead for three reasons. The qualifying floor is $50,000 of ATO debt, the audience that clears it is thin and time-pressured, and a person has to confirm the position is genuine before the lead ships.
The more useful question is what a funded deal costs you in leads, and that depends less on the provider's price than on your panel and your speed to call. The general framework is in the finance leads cost guide; this is the tax-debt version, where the lender is the variable that moves everything.
The $50,000 floor
Leads are qualified against a stated ATO liability of $50,000 or more. The average small-business tax debt is well under that, so the qualifying audience is a thin slice of a large pool, and thin audiences cost more to reach.
Urgency built into the debt
The general interest charge compounds daily and has not been deductible since 1 July 2025, so the cost of waiting is printed on every statement. Timeframes are short, which is good for conversion and punishes anyone who calls back tomorrow.
A specialist lender panel
Most major-bank products are not built for an unpaid ATO balance; these deals are written with non-bank and private lenders who price the risk. The same lead is worth far more to a broker with that panel, which is why the panel, not the price, is the first question.
Deeper intake and a human check
A tax-debt enquiry has to capture the approximate liability, what the owner wants to do about it, the amount needed, security where relevant and timeframe, and then someone has to review it. That production cost is part of the price.
Start with the only performance number we publish, a contact rate of 72.5%, and a hypothetical. Say you buy ten tax-debt leads. At 72.5% you reach about seven. Suppose, purely as an illustration, that two of the seven go to application and one settles. That funded deal cost you ten leads, so cost per funded deal is ten times your per-lead price, before your time.
Now run the same hypothetical with a majors-only panel: seven conversations, no application, nothing to divide by. That is the sense in which the maths is different. On a working-capital lead the lender is rarely the constraint; on a tax-debt lead the lender is the whole question. Decide what you can place before you decide what a lead is worth.
Two more variables. Speed: a borrower watching daily compounding has little reason to wait for a second caller. Unplaceable positions: in any provider's tax-debt flow, some enquiries arrive with no security and a trading loss, and few lenders will take them, so budget a share of every ten to that outcome. Your break-even lead price is simply upfront commission divided by the leads it takes to fund one deal; the cost guide's worked example runs that with round numbers.
Whatever a provider charges, a tax-debt lead is only worth its price if it arrives with the fields that decide placeability. Ask to see them on a sample before you talk price:
- Approximate ATO liability, as stated by the owner at the point of enquiry.
- Finance amount and purpose: clear the balance, refinance it into a facility, or restructure it alongside other borrowings.
- Available security, where relevant, because secured and unsecured positions go to different parts of your panel.
- Timeframe, which decides the order you call in.
- A mobile verified by SMS before delivery, with full name and email.
Those sit on top of the universal fields: name, verified mobile, email, finance type, amount, purpose, timeframe and submission notes. Two things no form captures reliably and your first call should: whether an arrangement is already in place with the ATO and whether it is being kept, and any enforcement step already taken.
The supply side is large but the qualifying slice is thin. Collectable tax debt is $54.2bn, of which $35.9bn sits with 1,338,387 small businesses at an average of $26,797 each (ANAO, June 2026). That average is the point: owners above the $50,000 floor are a minority of the pool, and a provider has to find them inside a much larger crowd of smaller arrears. That is why qualified tax-debt leads do not price like a volume product.
The urgency side is the general interest charge: 11.43% per annum for July to September 2026, compounding daily, and not deductible since 1 July 2025 (ATO, July 2026). The rate resets each quarter; the direction of the maths for an owner carrying a balance above the floor does not. For how that plays out in the deal, read the ATO tax-debt broker guide.
We generate ATO tax-debt enquiries from our own Google and Meta campaigns, qualified against a stated liability of $50,000 or more, with the approximate debt, what the owner wants to do about it, the amount needed, any security where relevant and the timeframe captured, the mobile confirmed by SMS code, and a human review before the lead ships. Each one is sold once, to one broker, never resold, and priced per lead by niche and volume on a call, with no lock-in contracts, no setup fees and no monthly retainers. If you can place these deals, see ATO tax-debt leads, or the commercial finance leads mix they sit inside; if you cannot, no price makes them worth buying, and we will say so on the call.